Bachelorette
by drarrylicious
Summary: Five years after high school, a group of friends reunites for a wedding. It's the chance for everyone to change their reputation, but there are secrets that had been hidden for too long. Will the wedding survive to the next morning? Not everyone can make it through the night... RPF, AU. Contains Breredith, Joime and Crisspez.
1. The perfect dress

**A/N: Heyo there :) I bring something new and funny for you this time! It's a shortfic (Kinda like 10 chapters), but I think it's worth a shot, pun intended. I wanna clarify some things before you read, mkay?**

**1) This is going to envolve various ships but the main ones are: Breredith, Joime, and Crisspez. **

**2) The fanfiction is based on the movie Bachelorette. It kinda of follows a different storyline after, but it has it similarities. **

**3) The story develops in an AU. That means it contains people from Starkid, but the storyline is TOTALLY different.**

**4) Last but not least. it's not gonna have smut per se (At least not hardcore :P ), but it contains constant mentions of sex, also violence, use and selling of drugs, and lots lots lots of swears and crude jokes just because. Read under your own consent.**

**Disclaimer: I think I don't own the****Starkids but I could be wrong.**

**All characters are portrayed in such way for the story's development. Everything is in my mind! I hope you enjoy this little adventure.**

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**Bachelorette**

**Chapter 1: The perfect dress**

_August 3rd, 2012– Los Angeles, California– 9.35am _

"One last question, miss Beatty, before we have to say goodbye to you." The reporter admired generously. "What inspired you to write such a touching, yet helpful, guide for single woman?"

"Well, the journey to self acceptance is a hard path to go through alone. I meant to share the lessons I've learned for myself. It's not a guide for single woman, it's a guide for all woman." And she added, with a stunningly perfect smile. "I just want to help people to love themselves."

The reporter smiled in devotion, as Jaime Lyn shook her hand, getting thanked for making it to the interview. She quickly signed a few copies of _"Ten steps to be free"_, not only her last book but also her first bestseller. She glanced at the watch hanging from her wrist, and held the need of cursing. She practically ran from the building, as fast as that new short dress allowed her to.

"Asshole." She murmured at the taxi that didn't stop at her sign. Luckily, the next one did notice her and drove her to the place she was supposed to be half an hour ago. After taking some dollars from her purse to pay the taxi, she ran on those endless high heels to get into the store as soon as it was possible.

"I'm here, I'm here!" She announced, standing up straight and trying to smile, but the person she was expecting wasn't there. She only saw the seamstress and the wedding organizer, and both of them were pretty useless and stupid to manage their works accurately. "Where is she?"

The organizer (Jaime did her best to remember, her name was Lita or Linda or something like that) pointed at the dressing room; and she walked quickly and talked through the curtains.

"Sweetie, I'm here. Come out, we all want to see you!" She cheered excitingly. She was extremely worried though, a day before the wedding they had to fix the dress, what if it ended up like a sack of potatoes? She couldn't just keep smiling and lying to her.

The curtains opened and a beautiful bride walked out from the dressing room. She had rosy cheeks, and seemed to dismiss sparkles just from how gorgeous she looked. You could notice she was holding a smile really hard, but she lost it when Jaime clapped her hands and screamed.

"God, Jules, you look absolutely stunning!" She said as her mouth opened in surprise.

"I know, right? Gosh, I'm so happy." Julia bit her lip in excitement, as she walked to the mirror of the dress store and stared at herself, not being able to believe that was actually her.

"The dress is perfect." Jaime commented, "I thought fixing it now could fuck it up, but it made it perfect." She continued, approaching her and staring at the reflection on the mirror too. Suddenly, her new short expensive dress was the sack of potatoes. And a disgusting nausea invaded her stomach.

Thinking she was about to throw up, she quickly walked away from Julia. Covering her mouth with a hand, she took a seat next to the organizer Lita or Linda or something like that.

"Are you okay?" Julia asked, following her. She had to grab her dress and lift it up a little to walk. Jaime nodded, but probably her sick face gave her away. "Listen, thank you so much for making time for this. I know this must be hard for you, and you're busy and that, so thanks."

"Aw, whenever you want, honey. I didn't really have anything else to do." She lied, not knowing why. _Right, because an interview for a magazine about my well underway career wasn't big deal, it could only like, change my life_.

"And there's another thing I wanted to say." She started to whisper now. "I know there's been enough last minute changes, and that I said that I didn't want a bachelorette party, but I was just thinking that I'm going to be married for the rest of my life now, so..." _Oh, no_, Jaime thought. _She couldn't say… _"I was thinking maybe having a little bachelorette tonight?"

_She did._

She remembered how she wrote pages and pages about having your mind and body in peace; but right then her Buddha was turning into a green ferocious Hulk.

"Oh, of course you can have a Bachelorette, sweetie! Anything for you." She replied, smiling, after a few seconds in which her mind collapsed in stress. "Did you hear that, Linda?" She turned to the organizer and barely killed her with her ferocious glance. That idiot better take care of something.

The girl frowned, confused, and she clarified pointing at herself. "My name's Angie."

"Whatever." Jaime kept smiling, but her tone of voice turned slightly threatening.

"Well,…" Angie looked at the notepad in her hands and shook her head. "We didn't have that in our schedule, I don't think a-"

"Oh, forget it, Linda." Jaime spit. "I'll prepare for you the bachelorette you deserve." She added to her friend. "Don't worry about it."

Julia covered her mouth with her hands, grateful. "Jaime you are the best. Thank you so much. Do you want to have lunch now?" Julia asked, still with the widest smile on her face. "Of course, after I change my clothes." She giggled. "I wouldn't mind to live wearing this, but I should probably save it for tomorrow."

Jaime got sicker at the only thought of it. "I'm sorry, I'm kind of in a rush right now. I have to run."

"But you just said you don't have anything else to do." Julia squinted her eyes, confused.

"Yeah, honey, but that was before I had the mission of putting up a whole party for tonight." Jaime added, laughing hysterically, and giving the bride a kiss on the cheek. "See you at the dinner, okay?"

"I'm Angie, by the way." The girl sitting with her notepad remarked once more.

"Shut up." Jaime snapped. She left Julia in her wedding dress, leaving the store. Being once minute more in there was going to make her sick. And she had now to organize a bachelorette in a matter of hours. Not to say that it was for the least expected wedding she thought she'd be helping with. Was that a fucking joke?

Jaime took her phone from her purse, quickly dialing a number as she walked as fast as a gazelle between the streets.

* * *

_August 3rd, 2012 – Chicago, Illinois – 10.30am_

It was pretty dark. She wouldn't have found her way if it wasn't because she was guided by a sparkles path. She distinguished she was walking through a red, long carpet. Her shoes were really tight, her feet hurt. But she kept walking. There was a bouquet of flowers in her hands. Then she noticed she was wearing a big, stuffy white dress. Was she a bride? Yeah, she was a bride and she was walking to the altar. In there, there was a mysterious man waiting for her. She couldn't see his face.

_Please be George Clooney. Please be George Clooney, _Meredith wished.

The guy turned back, and she couldn't help but to let out an _Ew_. It was Matthew, her (not unattractive, but incredibly douchy) ex boyfriend. He stared at her with what it meant to be a sexy smirk, and he took out what it seemed to be another bouquet of flowers, but it was actually a camera, before asking: _Hey doll, take off your clothes, are you ready to shoot?_

The pain in her feet got incredibly hard to stand, as she just repeated _ew, ew, ew _over and over, trying to get away from that disgusting men who tried to kiss her. Just in time, she felt a cold all over her face, and the images in front of her dissapeared.

"What the fuck-" Meredith cried, running a hand through her face to take the cold water someone just threw at her. "Was that really necessary?"

"I tried to wake you up by shaking your feet but it didn't work." David explained, helping her to stand up from the chair in which she fell asleep.

"I felt I haven't slept in a month." She complained, "I'm tired of these clothes. I'm tired of the blue color. And of the hospital."

She had been working about twelve hours a day, she could easily be eating via IV and sleeping in the morgue surrounded by corpses. In fact, she just did. Her work made her be used to the dead bodies environment, and she could take a nap in the place that would make anyone else shiver from creepiness.

"Well, you'll get to sleep in the plane, at least." David tried to comfort her, but Meredith's jaw dropped in shock.

"Shit, the flight! What time is it?"

"It's 10,45, what time does your plane arrive?"

"At 11." She answered quickly, taking off her doctor uniform, and staying in a tank top and jeans. There was no way she could get there on time. "Wish me good luck." She added, grabbing her bag.

"You need it. Listen, I'm sorry about Matthew, but don't… don't do anything you would do, okay?" David asked, confused but with a kind intention.

"I'll try to." Meredith replied, running downstairs. At the entrance of the hospital, she spotted Miss Hengway, an old lady who Meredith wasn't sure if she was hypochondriac or a little schizophrenic, tried to stop her by. She had been complaining about many different symptoms and accusing her of liar all the time after the test proved she was fine. "Not now, miss Hengway. I'm on vacation."

"But this morning I woke up and I swear my liver-"

"I don't mean to offend you, miss, but I don't give a fuck." She snapped, with a concerned face, as the lady looked highly offended. Finally, she was free. No more blue or hospitals for the rest of the day.

She caught a taxi in the minute, and arrived running into the airport. She kept checking the huge panel on the top of the place, and her plane was still on there. It was until she finished the last stairs, and she saw it disappearing.

"No, no, no…" she ran to her departure lounge, but the door was closed. Too late. "Fuck!" she cursed loudly, and a family with little kids that was passing by stared at her with a frown on their eyes, shocked.

She dragged her feet until the nearest reception, trying to ignore everyone. The next plane was arriving in an hour and there was a seat for her; so she bought the ticket without a doubt and sat with her bag on her lap, just waiting. That's when her phone started to ring.

"I hope you're in a plane coming to LA right now." Jaime's sweet but demanding voice ordered from her phone. She wasn't expecting her friend to begin with a hello neither.

"Sure. Let's say so." Meredith answered, shrugging.

She couldn't see Jaime, but she was sure she was rolling her eyes.

"Put Lauren on the line." Jaime said.

* * *

_August 3rd, 2012 - New York, State of New York – 11am_

"Okay, Lauren, now I want you to feel like if you are your character." The coach ordered, making a weird movement with his hands, as if he tried to shoo flies. "You are now a ghost from 1920s that's really mad because her lover's son is getting married with a whore."

Lauren frowned, confused, her eyes danced around, trying to capture the absurd essence of her character. "I really don't know how to do that. Should I… like…?" She waved her arms around, imitating a ghost, and made a pissed off squealed expression with her face.

The coach snorted, stressed. Any state of mind looked hilarious in the way he was dressed. Maybe if he didn't wear that stupid distracting hippie hat to every rehearsal it'd be easier for her to focus.

"Enough for today, Lauren, go… just go. We'll practice the rest of the play without you."

Lauren cheered, as she leaved the stage of that little theater. At least she got to be free earlier. She wasn't sure if her director just sucked or the play he chose was just shitty, but every day was worse.

When she was getting her stuff ready in the changing rooms (Her plane was going to arrive in an hour), she heard some girls in the cornerstone whispering and laughing around, but she didn't pay attention to them, until a guy walked to her.

"Lauren, did you finish early today?" The guy asked with a smirk, leaning against the wall.

"Yeah, Steph, I think they just don't want me around anymore…" She guessed with a wince, hanging her bag onto her shoulder.

"Remember what we talked about the other day?" Stephen raised an eyebrow. "I'm a good friend of the director, I can get you the star role!"

"Well, you didn't," Lauren replied, upset, "and I'm the ghost of a prostitute now!" She finished dramatically. She was about to leave, but he suddenly grabbed his arm.

"Yeah, I know, but before I can talk with him we should arrange our mutual favors, we talked about this, remember?" He explained, whispering, always with that smirk that pretended to be sensual. "When I explained you the tea metaphor. You bag my tea, and I help you to get the lead. You laughed because it rhymed, remember?"

"Oh! You mean you want a blowjob?" She finally understood, laughing, probably louder than what she should have. The girls on the corner glanced at them with disgust.

Stephen closed his eyes, sighing with embarrassment. "I explained you the metaphor for a reason, Lauren."

"Oh." She shrugged. "Okay, whatever, I BAGGED your TEA" she continued, putting emphasis in those words to make it clear "like three times before and I you never got me a lead. You're a liar. And that doesn't even rhyme." She spitted, offended. The guy wanted to add something else, but she was faster. "And you know what? You're old enough to bag your own tea." She finished, walking by the shocked group of girls at the corner before leaving the theater.

An hour after the arrival of her plane, when her phone rang, she couldn't help but smile of excitement as she saw who was calling.

"What's up, sluts?" Lauren yelled, this time attracting the attention of the guy next to her on the plane.

"Oh, nothing, actually." Jaime answered, and her tone seemed so honest that it was hard to believe the way she continued. "I just saw Julia in her dress, it was so perfect I think I'm going to kill myself."

"It was, actually?" Meredith asked askance.

"You wouldn't believe it. It's like, the dress I dreamt about all my childhood." Jaime explained. "Also, guess what. I have a bachelorette party to plan for tonight."

"Are you serious?" Lauren cheered, excited.

"Yes, it's right next to my aneurysm in my agenda."

"I thought she didn't want a bachelorette." Meredith said.

"_We all_ did. Gosh, her organizer is a good for nothing, I have to do absolutely everything. Do any of you even know a stripper?" Jaime asked, frustrated.

"Girl, you don't even know." Meredith commented. Then she stopped herself, "Wait, you mean a male stripper, right?"

"Yes."

"Oh, then no." she corrected.

"I'm so screwed. I'll just look into the newspaper, I don't even care. If it's a 50 years old and weighs 400 pounds, it's not my fault." Jaime said.

"I really can't believe she put you in that position." Meredith commented, shocked. "You shouldn't be doing all of that, Jaime."

"I know!" Jaime finally agreed.

"It's so inappropriate. There's just too much history." Meredith continued. It was true. After what she and Julia's fiancé went through, she was the least one that should be helping to put that wedding on place. "Lauren should be doing that, I mean, they were best friends all high school, right?"

"I think it's because I'm the only one who also moved to LA." Jaime guessed.

"Besides, you know I can't be in charge of stuff." Lauren added. "But girls, aren't you excited? We're finally going to be together again!"

"Just like the old times." Meredith alleged gloomily. There's been a long time since high school ended and they all took different ways. Five years, to be precise.

"We're gonna get to throw a bachelorette party, we're gonna get to dress up and be cool, it's gonna be just like prom!" Lauren cheered.

"That was my point of this call." Jaime's serious tone warned something, they knew it. "_Everyone_'s gonna be there. Everyone."

"Oh, shit." Meredith cried. That couldn't mean anything good.

"No, this is our chance. We need to prove everyone we're not a failure anymore." Jaime said.

"Excuse me?" Meredith messed. "When were _you_ a failure, Miss Prom Queen?"

"I meant you two, idiots." She explained. That wasn't totally true, but during high school she was known for being flawless. Perfect grades, popular, supporting family, a great house, nice body, shiny hair, and a dreamy boyfriend. Meredith and Lauren, otherwise, while they shared the popular status, they were more known for… let's for now say other stuff.

"Oh, right."

"First," Jaime started her guide. "What are you going to wear for the dinner?"

The dinner was having place that night, before the surprising bachelorette (and they supposed also the bachelor), in one of the fancies rooms of the hotel in which most of the guests were hosting that night, due the majority lived far away from Los Angeles. All the guests of the wedding were invited, and they already knew that was the strainer for who was going to show up to the ceremony with integrity.

"I brought a black dress that I found in my locker." Meredith replied.

"Black? This isn't your dignity's funeral. I'll give you one of my dresses." Jaime planned.

"I'm gonna totally slut up tonight. I have a red dress that's so obscene it'll blow your minds." Lauren added.

"To make a change." Jaime commented, rolling her eyes.

"Well, it doesn't surprise me." Meredith's tone gave away she knew something. "I heard Darren's gonna go."

Darren had been Lauren's on again off again since they hooked up in prom night. He moved to New York after high school to study Laws, and every four months they decided to break up, and get together four months later. Lauren continuingly turned from loving him to hate him.

"That brings me to the next subject." Jaime continued with her plan, trying not to get distracted by matters that were irremediable. "Who is your date for the dinner?"

The date for the dinner was also a tacit test to check if their partners were the right ones for the actual wedding. That night, everything they did would be observed and judged. Exactly like prom night.

"Meredith, are you bringing Matthew?" Jaime asked.

"Um, it turns out that I… kind of… broke up with him last night?" She stuttered.

"What?" Lauren and Jaime shouted at the unison.

"You can't do that, Mere, you said he was going to give me a part in one of his movies!" Lauren complained.

"I don't think you want that." She snorted. "Remember I said he was a film director? It turns out he makes adult films."

"You mean like porn?" Lauren asked.

"No, I mean Hello Kitty movies. Of course I mean porn!" She replied, disgusted with the only thought of it.

"And why didn't he tell you before?" Jaime questioned.

"Because guys are jerks?"

"Honey, I'm sorry." Jaime sighed. It wasn't the first time something like that happened to Meredith. She seemed to have a radar for those kind of guys.

"However, I texted Brant and he didn't have a date neither so he's going with me." She shrugged.

"Isn't Brant gay?" Lauren said.

"No, he's not." Meredith contradicted.

"I think he is." Jaime whispered. "I'm pretty sure Sarah Ashley said he saw him making out with Brian in senior year."

"Brian Holden is gay?" Lauren was every time more surprised.

"No, of course not. Brian Rosenthal." Jaime alleged.

"Brian Rosenthal can't be gay." Lauren replied. "He totally hit on me in freshman year."

"Uh, duh, he definitely is gay." Jaime interrupted.

"Can you two stop gay-zing people?" Meredith cut off. "It doesn't fucking matter. It's just so I won't go alone." _Not like prom night, at least._

"And who's your date, Lauren?"

"Joe Moses. Do you remember Joe Moses? He used to be a fucking nerd in high school. I saw him the other day, here in New York, and I can tell you he's not a nerd at all now." Lauren giggled. "We're just going as friends though."

"And as friends you mean…"

"I mean that I'm using him to make Darren jealous." She explained.

"Well," Meredith said. "I'm glad he's that kind of friend and not the type I have to hear you cry about later. What about you, Prom Queen?"

"I'm going alone." Jaime replied, as if it wasn't big deal.

"You're kidding."

"No, listen. I just wrote a book about how you need to respect yourself and think of you as an independent woman. I'm not going to lower my dignity and ask a douche to be my lame date." She explained. She thought that, contrary to Meredith and Lauren, she didn't need to get her reputation higher.

"Wow, I'm glad you overestimate us so much." Meredith said in an ironical touching tone of voice, but Jaime ignored her.

"I expect both of you to be sober and clean tonight, we meet in our room at 5pm."

"Sounds about right." Meredith agreed, smiling. Luckily, she was going to get there on time.

"I can't wait." Lauren exclaimed. "This is so gonna be our night. There's absolutely nothing that can ruin this."

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**A/N: I hope at least I made you laugh. Reviews make me happy. Thank you for reading :) xo **


	2. (Unwanted) Surprises

**A/N: Here's the second chapter, some things are being cleared up and others darked out- oops! I hope you enjoy!**

**Reviews make me soso happy! x**

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**Chapter 2: (Unwanted) Surprises**

_August 3rd, 2012– Los Angeles, California–6.30pm_

If taking tic-tac candies and anxiety pills could intoxicate you, Jaime would have been dead about two hours ago. Meredith and Lauren were more than one hour late; and the majority of the guests had already arrived and were settling down in their rooms. The room that Jaime shared with the two girls was two floors down Julia's suite. She wished she could've made up an excuse fair enough to escape from that suffocating room, but the wedding was the next day and there were still some things to organize that needed her screaming orders at the top of her lungs to the organizer and some other people that also needed to be yelled to. She was now talking through the phone to explain to a pair of Julia's cousins why they needed to get there that night for the Bachelorette planned at last second, because Julia almost started to cry when they said they couldn't go. Jaime's explanations were vague but the defiant tone of her voice ended up on changing their mind.

After Jaime hung up the phone, Julia wiped one of the tears on her cheeks, smiled and thanked her. Jaime just smiled back shortly and ate another tic-tac. By what it seemed a lifetime, she finally got a text from Meredith announcing she and Lauren were getting in the hotel in five minutes in a taxi. Glad to have a not only reasonable but also honest excuse to leave, she said to Julia to call her if anything happened, that she was only two floors away, and said she should relax and watch some TV to rest until the dinner. She'd have to meet and be nice to everyone then.

Jaime ran to get in time to the elevator that was closing its door in that floor, but she cursed as she realized she wouldn't get there. And she was going to lose it, if it wasn't for somebody's foot that got on purpose in the way of the door, giving her enough time to get inside of the elevator.

"Thanks." Jaime said to that stranger. He was the only person in the elevator.

"Where to?" He asked. His voice was kind of high pitched having in mind how tall he was, but it still was a manly voice.

"To the ground floor." She answered, and he pressed the button. Somebody from the last floor called the elevator though, so they had an awkward time ahead them as it went up.

He was cute. Jaime realized that instantly. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, even when it wasn't really that cold, and a baggy pair of jeans. His brown hair was a little longer than usual, but not really that long to look like a hippie or something, but decent long. He had a stubble beard, he didn't shave that day so he was kind of neglected, at least that's what she suspected.

It wasn't more than ten seconds until he spoke again.

"Are you Jaime?" He asked with a glance, short enough to not make her uncomfortable, but long enough to make her realize he looked.

"Are you a creeper?" She replied, squinting her eyes.

He laughed. He had a nice laugh. "I saw a few pictures of you. I'm one of the best men." He explained, then he finally stretched his hand. "Joey." He introduced himself. Jaime shook it.

"A pleasure." She just said. She was surprised, she could've sworn she knew all of the best men, like Darren and Brian. But that guy didn't go to high school with them, it was the first time in her life she saw him. "Where do you know the groom from?"

"We had a few classes together in college, and we paired up as buddy works when we graduated." Julia's boyfriend studied business in Los Angeles and it wasn't long after he finished that he got rich as hell; so he was probably as rich as him, but choose to dress humbly by choice. "I'm pretty scared of all of this, to be honest." He admitted, shyly but smiling. "I don't know anyone in here."

The elevator stopped to let a couple in. They pressed the tenth floor button so they were going down again.

Jaime snorted. "Trust me, it's better not to know anything about these people."

She was being honest. Especially in her situation. Everyone would be expecting a crazy depressing reaction from her part, due high school history, and at least it comforted her to know one person wouldn't be focused in that.

"Besides," she added, "now you know me."

He grinned. "That's a plus."

The couple was out of the elevator and they kept going down, and they stopped again at the fifth floor.

"This is my floor." Joey said, and Jaime's entire inside cheered.

"Really? It's mine too. Room 273."

"297." He just replied with that weird crooked (but charming) smile, before the elevator door closed and she couldn't see him no more.

Jaime tried to rest importance to the smile that for some reason couldn't get of her face until she got out of the elevator in the ground floor. But she smiled again when she spotted the two girls babbling lowly in a corner of the lobby.

They both screamed in excitement as they saw Jaime, who gave them a big long hug. They hadn't been the three together in a very long time.

"I've missed you two so much!" Jaime cried.

Now that they had Jaime's key, they headed to the fifth floor again. When Jaime was opening the door, she glanced to the right where she supposed Joey's room was. She didn't see any movement, but it was still really early so it was cool. Lauren got in the shower immediately and Meredith planked her body onto the bed.

"Don't even think about falling asleep, you are late and the dinner starts at 9pm." Jaime warned, leaving the keys on the bedside table, next to the phone, sitting on her bed and grabbing a few dresses out of her bag and throwing them to Meredith. "You chose."

Still lying on the bed, Meredith examined the dresses. There was a color champagne one, a green one and a black one, all of them pretty short but actually really nice. She grabbed the black one and threw the other two back to Jaime.

She just raised her eyebrows, spitting an ironic "Really?". But she didn't insist.

Lauren got out of the bathroom wearing just a towel and with her hair wet, and sat down on her bed too, turning on the hairdryer.

"You know, I'm thinking about dying my hair blonde again." She commented.

"But you look good as a brunette." Jaime said. It was her natural color, the one that she had in that moment, and she got so used to it again that she couldn't picture her with another color.

"Yeah, but you know, I think I might get a part in TV or something if I'm blonde." Lauren just replied.

Jaime looked askance at Meredith. Lauren was too focused on drying her hair to notice the looks that her friends shared. Lauren had been pursuing her dream of becoming an actress since she finished high school. She moved to New York and literally auditioned for everything. After years of temporary lame bargains, she finally got a stable job in a little theater, it wasn't popular and it was a pretty shitty job but at least she got paid for it. But her dream was starring a movie or a television show; but the chances haven't been on her side and they started to think she wasn't talented enough to make it. People made fun of Lauren for being blindly persistent and deciding not to go to college. But they didn't say anything, because Lauren was sensitive about certain things. Maybe sensitive wasn't the exact correct description, but she had some troubles.

Meredith entered then in the bathroom to shower, and somebody knocked on the door. Lauren frowned, wondering who it could be; but Jaime offered to open the door, thinking it might be the elevator guy. Chances were low, (why'd he show up in her room one hour before the dinner?), but she had hopes.

She hid her disappointment when she saw Arielle and Denise standing in the door. The girls greeted her with a quick hug.

"It's been so long! How are you?" Arielle said, and Jaime had no option but let them in the room.

They said hello to Lauren from the distance, seeing she was really busy doing her hair.

"Where's Meredith?" Denise asked. Meredith had been one of her best friends during high school. Jaime noticed the blonde looked a little shy, but anxious to see her.

"She's in the bathroom, she'll probably take a while in there though." Jaime said. "What is from you two? We haven't seen in ages."

"I am finishing my arts degree in Michigan." Arielle said. She went to high school with them, but she was like two years younger or something. Jaime had never really talked seriously with her.

"And I studied veterinary like I said I would, remember?" Denise commented.

"Oh, right!" Jaime exclaimed, amused. She didn't remember.

"And I wanted to work for a good cause so, I got into a convention for charity and it turned out that Dylan worked there too, as a social manager or something. And he got me a job in there, and we just spend our days travelling around the world. Well, just America for now but, we never stop. It's beautiful." Denise gave her speech very proud of herself, but Jaime thought she was probably starving with her salary and that she should take showers like every three days; and she was grateful for her own career choice.

"You're not telling the whole story, you impish." Arielle joked. "She's dating Dylan since like six months ago."

"Oh, really?" Jaime said. "Congratulations!"

Denise just blushed, and then she said if she could use the phone in their room because theirs wasn't working. Jaime agreed, so the girl sat down for a while in her bed and dialed a number, but she couldn't hear the conversation because Arielle distracted her right away.

"Oh my god, listen, I've read your book a thousand times." She admired. "I just love it."

Jaime grinned, proud. "Thank you."

"I told everyone I went to school with you."

Jaime's chest got at least twice bigger.

Not that she was going to admit it, but she was waiting for someone to congratulate her or at least mention the book.

Denise finished her phone call after a minute, and the girls leaved the room before Meredith got out of the bathroom. They informed their room number, in the same floor, and told them to visit them whenever they wanted. Not that they thought of doing it so, but they thanked the appreciation.

"You won't imagine what I brought here!" Lauren said with a chanting tone, once her hair was done and Meredith finished her shower.

She took out from her bag a big scrapbook and the girls realized immediately it was their senior year's photo album, and they gathered around Lauren.

"Oh my god." Jaime couldn't believe what she was about to see.

The first photo implied Meredith, Jaime, Lauren and Julia with a faked but hilarious pose at the entrance of the school. The next one was the four of them, just that that one was more spontaneous, they were having lunch at the cafeteria.

"We looked so young!" Meredith covered her mouth with a hand, invaded by memories.

"And I was blonde!" Lauren added.

The next one was a picture of Lauren and Julia hugging and with a few drinks in their hands. There was also a similar picture of Meredith and Denise. And that's when they got into a picture that left them breathless for a few seconds. It was Jaime sitting on Joe Walker's lap. He was resting his head on her shoulder and they were both smiling. Joe looked really fit and young, and Jaime just looked flawless. They were together all high school, and they were the perfect couple. There was not a single girl in the school that didn't envy Jaime in a sense, and there wasn't a guy who wouldn't trade places with Joe at any chance. They really were in love; but it was that, high school love, it wouldn't last forever. Even though they both moved to California, they wanted to be free to explore the world in their own, so they friendly broke up a few weeks after prom. It was more than ironic their situation right now.

"You guys did were the perfect couple." Lauren admitted sadly. Everyone used to think that way.

When Julia started dating Joe, Jaime didn't freak out. Of course she asked for her permission (After they started dating though…), and what could've Jaime say? She really didn't care about it, she moved on with her life, she was focused on her perfect grades in college and extracurricular activities. Everyone expected them to break up after two months. Even Jaime. Not that she didn't want Julia's happiness, even Joe's happiness; but they just didn't fit. It was obvious they wouldn't last. Thinking of the two of them together seemed even funny. They were too different. That's why Jaime didn't freak out. She forgot about them and she really didn't contact Julia a lot. They took different paths; they just randomly met sometime in Starbucks or something.

Until one night Julia surprisingly invited Jaime to have dinner, and Jaime choked with her wine as Julia showed her engagement ring. "I didn't know you guys were still together!" was her pathetic first response. When Julia asked her, almost begged her to be her bridesmaid, she stopped eating for a week. And she started living actual hell since then.

"You should get a fucking Nobel prize for this." Meredith said, changing the picture to another of Joe with Darren and Brian Holden messing around.

Nobody could believe that after three years of a relationship with Joe, Jaime was assuring that his wedding was perfect- with one of her best friends. It was just crazy, stupid, unbelievable. It didn't help that the next picture was the two of them, Joe and Jaime, as prom king and queen. And the next one was a picture of Darren and Lauren at prom, both making ducky faces to the camera. Lauren smiled, but then she said with a bittersweet tone:

"Why can't everything be like in high school?"

Meredith violently closed the photo album with a snap of her hand, and stood up quickly.

"Okay, we're getting too old cat ladies in here!" She yelled. "We really need to get ready."

_9pm_

Joe Moses and Brant were punctual to pick them up. Lauren was right about Moses, he did look way better than in high school; and about Brant, well if he was gay, he wasn't obvious enough for them to figure out so soon.

Jaime asked to be the first one to arrive into the fancy restaurant of the hotel that was specially rented for the guests of the wedding, that way it wouldn't be so embarrassing to be followed by the two couples. They picked a table for six before someone else did it; Jaime, Meredith and Lauren sat next to each other, and the guys in the other side, but respecting the date agreement, Meredith and Lauren were next to their dates, this didn't mean they were paying attention to them though. The food arrived in a second, so the guys started to eat. Once in there, the three girls started to look around and more than one surprise made them talk under their breath.

"Did you guys seen Jeff Blim?" Jaime said, shocked.

"Hot damn." Lauren replied. "He's got a fine piece of ass." It seemed like if his attempts to seem this badass rock boy during school finally worked.

"Oh god, is that Devin Lytle?" This time Jaime's jaw literally dropped.

Devin used to be a little… overweight five years ago.

Actually, pretty overweight…

They used to sing the Free Willy theme every gym class when she walked in.

"No way!"

But right then, she was so skinny she could've easily been a Victoria's Secret model. It was shocking. They couldn't believe it was possible to lose so much weight in so little time. That's when the three of them grabbed their cups of wine and took the first sip.

"Who is she with?"

"Tyler Brunsman. I could recognize his teeth from like, Washington." Jaime said. They didn't act very couple alike, it was obvious they were in the same position as Lauren and Meredith. There were various awkward pairings like them. Like Nick Lang and Lilly Marks, and Alle-Faye Monka with Brian Rosenthal, who was still in their debate of gay or not, and Brian Holden with Elona Finlay.

"Ugh." Meredith snorted as she spotted them. She couldn't get that guy of her throat since senior year. She hated him. He always made fun of her brackets in front of the class, and she'd _never ever_ forget what he did to her in prom night. But she did have to admit he looked hella good in a suit.

There were couples that looked normal though, besides Joe and Julia in a table that was further from what the girls would've thought. AJ Holmes and Ali Gordon were apparently dating, Britney Coleman brought a cute guy they didn't know, and of course the new candid couple Dylan and Denise were holding hands and being absolutely adorable. Jaime wasn't the only one that attended alone though. They spotted Eric Kahn Gale, Jim Povolo, and Nick Strauss, those were some of the people they knew, besides Arielle Goldman.

Then Jaime saw him in the same table as Brian, Elona and two empty spots, but he wasn't talking with the couple, the elevator guy. He was already looking at her, probably noticing she was searching for him. She grinned, and even blushed a little. He smiled back. He was a lot neater than the guy she saw at the elevator, and shaved, he seemed completely different. But a good different.

"Care to share, Jaime?" Meredith asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He's called Joey." She explained. "I met him in the elevator. He's one of Joe's best man."

"Well he is cute!" Meredith said. "And he is so checking you out. Want to go there and talk with him? I can go with you." She pushed her, excited.

"Not so soon. Maybe later. Besides, I think there's another reason you want to go to that table."

Meredith frowned, but Jaime laughed.

"Come on! You have had a crush on Brian Holden since junior year."

Meredith hit Jaime on the arm. "I DO NOT." She stated. She might have felt something for him, but that was years ago. And what he did in prom night… "He's a jerk."

"Sounds like your type." Jaime insisted, but she was interrupted by an anxious Lauren.

"Where the fuck is he?!" She almost yelled, drinking from her glass of wine as if it was water. She searched between the tables but she couldn't find what she was looking for.

It was like if that question called him paranormally. The door of the restaurant opened and Darren walked in with his usual short fro, but with a girl with long hair and red lipstick taking his arm. They knew her, it was called Mia and she was a friend of Joe.

Lauren's eyes widened so big they could've been two fried eggs. The couple walked through the tables as if they didn't see anyone, and they took the empty spots at Brian and Joey's table.

Lauren's voice sounded so strong and mad that Meredith jumped on her seat.

"What the FUCK is he doing with her?"

Meredith and Jaime looked at each other. "He's totally doing it to make you jealous, Lauren." Jaime finally was fast to reply. But Lauren's plans were obviously ruined, seeing he completely ignored her as he passed by them.

"Oh, god." Lauren cried, she couldn't get out of her shock. "My dress isn't even remotely slutty enough to compete with this."

Needless to say the dinner was a disaster. Well, the food was good but everything else sucked. Brian gave an awful pathetic toast speech, joking at the end that he was practicing to see if it was bad enough for the wedding (Meredith rolled her eyes at least four times). Nobody laughed. Julia seemed happy though. She was wearing a green gown and she looked really pretty; and Joe held her hand the whole dinner. They seemed to be having a nice time chatting with each other's family; that was a good thing about them, their families really got along and there wasn't drama.

Lauren whined the entire time, that Joe Moses ended up ditching tables without even saying goodbye. Jaime did meet glances with Joey like a thousand times but she wasn't brave enough to stand up and talk with him. Meredith, on the other hand, tried to talk with Brant.

"Do you think that some people might only be attracted to… you know, douchebags?" Okay, that wasn't the best subject to bring on a conversation, but at least she tried.

"Maybe those people like to get hurt." Brant replied wisely, eating the dessert. Everyone was eating it except Jaime, who was on a full-time diet.

Meredith squinted, not following his words. "Why'd someone like to get hurt?"

But Brant had a huge deep explanation ready.

"It's like when you go on a rollercoaster. If you don't like a rollercoaster you probably won't ride one. If you like them, you will. You'll pay to sit on an uncomfortable seat covered with an asphyxiating bell, you'll scream and throw up for like two minutes, and then when you get out you'll feel embarrassed and stupid for five minutes. And then you wanna go in the rollercoaster again."

"I'm not sure if that's a terrible metaphor," Meredith said "or a perfect metaphor." She lowered her voice to make a question that'd just consume her mind otherwise, after five seconds of silence. "Are you gay?"

"Are you lesbian?"

His reply made her raise her eyebrows. "What?!"

"That's what everyone says." Brant just shrugged, peacefully eating his dessert and not even answering her question.

"That's what… What?" She asked again, too shocked. "What the hell? I'm not a lesbian. Who said that?"

"Sorry, Brian said that to me." He apologized.

Meredith closed her eyes for two seconds, trying to breathe and remain calmed.

"Brian… Brian what?"

"Brian Holden." Brant seemed confused.

"Oh, he DID NOT." She replied, too upset to ignore that.

They were supposed to be adults now! Why did he keep messing with her? She looked at him, he was laughing in his table. Oh she could just walk to him and slap him on the face. She was so, so upset. And she couldn't even compensate it by talking shit about him, because Jaime was too busy making silly eyes to that boy and Lauren was probably thinking about a way to make her dress more slutty. But Meredith wasn't going to leave the matter just like that.

Yeah, things didn't happen as they were supposed to, but they weren't high school girls anymore.


	3. The garter game

**A/N: A little late, but here's the next chapter! I meant to do it longer and to include a lot of other things already, but for some reason this is taking me longer than what I expected :/ sorry! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and leave me a cute review about your thoughts? thank you :) xo**

**Did I say this has like drugs and adult stuff? It has.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: The garter game**

_August 3rd, 2012- Los Angeles, California- 22.30pm_

As if standing the entire dinner wasn't enough, when they decided there wasn't enough wine in that room to stay a minute more in there, they were told by the organizer they couldn't go yet. Julia's family retired among the older people from the guests list, and for some reason Linda's words about how they were going to "taste a little of fun from the next day" didn't sound really fun at all. They tried to escape at one point; but Julia would realize so they finally decided to stay. Meredith left the poor Brant to go in his own, because obviously hanging out with him wouldn't do any good for her because _of course,_ now she was a lesbian. And like JoMo dumped Lauren's for her whining, the three girls were alone again.

As soon as Linda said the words open bar; there was a big crowd piling up the poor pair of waitresses. Lauren went to get them a pair of daikiris, so Jaime and Meredith stood up next to the table of snacks, despite they already had dinner a few minutes before. Not that Jaime ate something her diet forbidden, of course. The waitresses took advantage of the open bar distraction and they were taking off the tables and making room in the center of the place. Nobody truly knew what it was about; but the organizer was pretty lame so they were expecting something tenth times lamer and something they probably were too sober for.

But Lauren was apparently too petite to have the barman noticing her existence. A tall line of people was in her way, and she didn't find enough strength to push them. She cursed inwardly when she heard a giggle that she knew very well behind her back.

"Let me get you something." The same voice as the giggle said. Lauren pretended to not have heard it, and she kept trying to make her way between the people, but it seemed impossible.

Then she turned her head to him. "In what universe you are a lot taller than me?"

He was alone. He still had a grin on his face and a few black short curls covered a part of his forehead.

He chose to ignore her response. "You'll be here the entire night otherwise."

Lauren didn't want to admit it, but she knew it was true. "But you need to get something for Jaime and Meredith too." She finally spit, not flattered.

She thought he'd complain, but Darren just nodded his head and approached the bar. Five minutes later, he appeared again with enough drinks to keep them entertained for a while. Lauren managed to grab their drinks; and just then she looked directly at the guy.

"Thanks." She muttered awkwardly. "…And, hi, I guess." She finally added, not knowing what to say and noticing they really hadn't greeted each other. He was probably not expecting it having in mind he brought someone else to the wedding.

"Yeah, hi." Darren finally replied, and then gave her a more awkward kiss on the cheek. "It's been a while."

"Yeah, I don't see you since…" She stopped herself from continuing.

"Since that time." He finished tacitly. They both remembered that time, it wasn't necessary to mention it. The last time they broke up; they had the most terrible fight and none of them had the indecency to text the other after it. The supposed reason of that fight really affected Lauren; and if it wasn't because he had been working eight weekly hours at the gym and was looking like The Rock Johnson, she probably wouldn't have forgiven him.

"So you and…" Lauren glanced over at the woman waiting for him away from the bar.

"I hope that's okay." Darren said quietly, a little ashamed.

Lauren snorted. The fact that he was banging another chick between four weeks after they broke up? "Why- why- why wouldn't I?" But the stutter of her voice already answered that question. "I'm perfectly fine." She added, but that conversation wasn't something she could be interested in anymore. "Thanks for the drinks."

She walked away to her friends again. Darren seemed to want to add something more but she was too fast disappearing; the look on his face was thoughtful. Lauren was thankful that the awkward moment ended, and she was still upset for remembering the reason of that last fight; but she was sure at one point of the night she'd miss him again and things would start to get bad, as they always did.

Lauren handed the two girls their respective drinks. Meredith made buttons up, as Jaime explained to the recently arrived that one of Julia's female cousins just tried to indecorously hit on Meredith.

"I just don't get it," Meredith said with a frown up her eyes, shaking accusingly her empty cup. "High school is over, why does he still feel the need to ruin my life?"

"He's probably upset because his life is still a failure." Jaime defended her.

"Didn't he use to sell us weed?" Lauren asked with a tilt of her head. Jaime nodded, "That's like, the coolest job I can think of!"

Lauren got herself distracted with her drink after Meredith barely shot her with an angry look of her eyes.

Finally, Linda announced that the preview of the wedding's party of the next day was about to begin. She seemed completely blind to the fact that most guests were expecting her to shut up and leave them go in their own; they were with their friends in one of the most amazing cities in the world, after all, and none of them were expecting to actually have fun in that little room and with that tiny lady of Asian looks, annoying voice and her notepad in her trembling hands (Maybe, except, Julia). To give a start, the bachelorette was in a few moments, and the boys surely were doing something for Joe too. The girl, on the other hand, looked nothing but extremely happy for the supposed enjoyable air of the party.

That's why probably one of the reasons she expected cheers and screaming when she announced they were doing the garter game. A look of disappointment showed up on her face as she saw nothing but eyes rolling and even a few boos from the crowd. She tried to disguise it by continuing with her explanation though. She calmly gave a speech about the traditional garter toss game, in which the groom takes the garter from the bride's leg and tosses it to the men to see who catches it, and after saying they were definitely going to do that the next day (_Oh, thank god_, Jaime whispered ironically.), that night they were going to do exactly the opposite. Starting with Julia, of course, the men should put the garter up her thigh as a sign of their last night separated or something like that.

Julia's cousins, who were the only ones that seemed amused with the idea, didn't wait to drag her to the center of the room, now occupied by a chair. That seemed to cheer Linda up; so she gave the garter to the groom. Julia was already blushing and covering her face with her hands, between giggles. Joe seemed amused too. Darren and Brian were making some (probably inappropriate) comments in a low voice before he walked to the chair Julia just sat down in; and he laughed in response. He shared a complicit look with Julia, before bending on his knee. When he put the garter around her leg he placed his hands on her left foot, and started to teasingly move it up; Julia lost it and burst into laughs, half embarrassed half amused. Her face was all red when he reached her thigh, lifting a little up her dress.

They had luck that the crowd found it pretty entertaining, and pushed mostly by the best men, a loud cheer for the couple filled the room as Joe just grabbed Julia's hand, helping her to stand up and kissing her in front of everyone. Jaime thought she'd throw up again. As the _aw_ finished echoing in the room, Linda whispered something to the pair of best men and the couple wasn't the center of attention anymore. They made a quickly arrangement and soon Arielle was dragged to the chair; Denise and Lily Marks helping them to get her staying there. Despite her complaining, she couldn't get up; well the public choose her for the game and there was no escape without making them happy. Then Joe Moses was dragged too; and the three girls had to make their way between the people to be able to watch the show, because they formed a circle a few feet around the chair. To make things spicier, Linda handed Arielle a pair of wine cups full of water, it wasn't to drink them though. Arielle had to hold each one in every hand, so everyone could realize in a quite exact state how nervous she was on a scale from full cup to empty cup. Arielle was faster in breaking into laughs, due the fact she barely knew JoMo. Thanks to her nervousness or her laugh, the cups lost 30% of the water in it. It wasn't that bad.

"That's not fair, you were _my_ date." Lauren joked to Moses while he walked again from the center. Meanwhile, the public was choosing the next couple.

But the suspicious smile he directed to her made her regret it instantly. He grabbed her arm and dragged her into the circle, she tried to stop him and asked for help to Jaime and Meredith, but the two just shrugged meanly.

"The people have spoken, Lauren!" Jaime said, and then added with a whisper. "I just hope she doesn't get someone so bad."

But when they glanced over at the center again, it was already too late. Any guy could be bad. But that was just purgatory. At the moment Moses could get her in the chair, another girl was already in there too, and it was Darren's date, who was being forced to get there to. Lauren's eyes widened, quickly stepping back again, and this time Joe didn't stop her, realizing the situation was uncomfortable.

"Awkward, awkward, awkward…" Meredith whispered to Jaime, before stealing a snack from the table.

The same thought was in Lauren's mind, when Brian interfered, but not for good. Instead of letting her go and avoiding more weird moments, he cut out yelling.

"Hey, wait, wait, there's a way we can do this!" Brian grabbed Lauren's arm and then looked at Darren. "Can we get another chair? Yes, thanks Jim!" His question didn't await for a reply, as Jim handed him another chair and Brian collocated it with an arm movement just next to the other one.

"Brian, no, no, please." Lauren begged, as he pushed her on the other chair. She felt so embarrassed already. But Brian seemed deaf to her laments.

"I got this under control, don't worry." He assured, but Lauren didn't think so.

The two girls were handed the wine cups. Each one for every hand. How they were supposed to do that?

"This is ridiculous." Mia said under her breath, laughing; and Lauren wished she could laugh too.

Darren didn't make the people begged him. A few guys did yell how lucky he was; but nobody mentioned how stupid it was for the two girls. He grabbed the pair of garters, and bent on his knee. He had one in every hand, but he seemed sort of confused about what to do. Finally, he put the one in his right hand around Lauren's feet and the one in his left hand around Mia's feet. Slowly, and carefully at the same time, he started to move them up their legs. He was mostly focused on doing it both legs at the same time. Everyone were making noises, whether they were boos or cheering. Lauren didn't know whether what thought she should try to ignore the hardest: if the embarrassment of that situation and how pathetic made her seem, or Darren's hand reaching slowly her thigh. Mia had lost almost half of the water in her cup due her insane giggling, but Lauren's straight face avoided that problem.

She didn't know what to do. Her eyes searched for her friends, but Meredith was busy taking pictures with her phone of that precious moment, and Jaime was chatting with the guy she spent the whole dinner making eyes at. Finally, the worst was over, when she felt the garter in its place at last, in her high thigh. She checked to see if she could go already, and without planning it, her eyes met Darren's, and he wasn't laughing or anything. His face was serious and he looked straight at her for 1.3 seconds. And just Lauren saw him moving his lips as if it was slow motion.

"I'm sorry." He whispered really quietly, before taking Mia's hand and walking away. Everyone were too stupid cheering, but Lauren was really, really, really confused. She was so confused she literally didn't know what to do. She just stayed there, sitting down, looking at nowhere, until Brian thought she had a brain stroke or something so he dragged her chair off the circle again to continue with the game in a normal way.

"Hey," Jaime heard someone whispering as a hand was placed on her waist. "Do you have an idea if we can get the hell out of here soon?"

It was Joey. He was smiling, but Jaime knew he was being totally serious with that question. "Soon, I think. But not yet. Sorry."

He sighed in defeat. "Yeah, I guessed that. It's going to be a long night for me." He complained.

"That makes me guess you met the other best men. They didn't accept you as one of their own yet?" Jaime shook her head, glancing over at Brian and Darren and their ridiculous set up.

"I think they did, and that's the bad thing." Joey laughed. "No, they're cool dudes, but I think and entire night with them might be too much."

"Well, maybe we can go somewhere if things get too boring." Jaime explained, carelessly. "Give me your number and I'll text you."

As Joey gave Jaime his cell phone, Meredith classily raised an eyebrow at Jaime, surprised by her quick seduction skills, while she kept pretending to be busy on her phone so she wouldn't annoy them. Jaime just laughed silently. The chair was now being occupied for one of Julia's cousins , and she was laughing like a freak while Jim Povolo was putting the garter in her leg. But the pickup scene was interrupted by a totally ghost-y Lauren, who just walked into them with a face that could only meant she just saw the ninety minutes long sex tape of her parents.

"He said he was sorry." Lauren grabbed Jaime's arm and told her totally serious. She was too concerned about it to realize what she just interrupted. "What did he mean?"

"Probably the fact that you'll be over one hundred views in Youtube after this." Jaime explained.

"You think so?" Lauren asked. She thought he might meant their last fight. Or the fact he brought someone else. Or a lot of other things.

"Don't think so hard, I can smell your brain burning from here." Meredith joked, but Lauren didn't understand and just looked at her with her eyes frowning. Meredith shrugged.

Their conversation was quickly interrupted- again, when Jaime was chosen by someone (they couldn't tell who) to be in the chair. She barely got the chance to return the phone to Joey. Jeff Blim was dragged to the circle too and it was hugely embarrassing for both. Jaime was upset because they totally ruined it for her and Joey. Not that Jeff was unattractive, but that wasn't the reason half of the water in her cups ended up in the floor. At that point, Brian (who pretentiously crowned himself as the host of the game) was hated for most of the people in the room for putting everyone in the most uncomfortable situation. He was loved by the rest for the same reason though. So when he made a stupid 0% funny joke about the shakiness of her hands, she just stood up and said with a sassy tone:

"Well, what about you, soul of the party?" Jaime's snap was seconded by an echo of voices. Brian laughed, stretching his arms at the side of his body.

"Give me your best." He replied.

She just had to say a name and everyone would make it happen without an effort. But she didn't say Elona. She looked at Meredith, who shook his head and made a sign of a knife running through her throat, before saying it.

"I'm sure Meredith is my best card in hand. Guys." She added to Darren and Jim, and they found Meredith between the crowds at the speed of light. The poor girl was just shaking her head and replying that she didn't want that, totally in denial. Jaime was one hundred percent sure that'd lead to a cheesy reunion between those two; they did like each other in high school after all. And that could keep Meredith entertained at least for that night.

So, after a little bit of struggling here and there, Meredith agreed to sit down. Brian was acting like a total winner though, maybe a little douchy but it was necessary to cheer up the party a bit. She knew his showing off was being mostly staged. When he bent on his knee and put the garter around her feet, his idiotic charming smile met hers; but she raised an eyebrow in response.

"You look very different." Those were surprisingly his first words.

"I changed." She replied, serious. His fingers were running up her calves, very slowly. Not a single drop of water was outside her cups yet.

"Pity, I liked you." He continued, without breaking the eye contact. She was sure no one else could hear what they were saying, and he wasn't being completely staged anymore.

"Pity for you then. Because apparently, I'm a lesbian now. What the fuck, Brian?" She spat, disgusted. She had now the perfect chance to get him to give his lame excuse about that rumor.

Brian laughed. "I was only trying to get your attention."

Meredith snorted, and a few drops of water dropped on the floor. "Then why don't you stop acting like a 13 year old?"

"Mmmh, I prefer my method." Brian said, his hands were reaching her thigh. "I think I'm not as far to get in the," he glanced down, "pink room , as you might think." He finished with a wink.

Meredith's jaw dropped in offense, and a squirt of water was accidently dropped in the floor. He was referring to the pink panties she was wearing. He just glanced at her panties, taking advantage of that non-usual position. He fucking glanced at her panties! What an ass.

She didn't even waste her time in replying something. She directly moved her both arms at the same time towards him, spilling all the water over his face and shirt, and quickly left the wine cups on the floor. Everyone in the room gave their response instantly, both booing and cheering. He jumped back in surprise, but before he could add something, Meredith stood up and walked out of there, between the people, towards the bathroom. The fact that she was pissed off was obvious for anyone.

Linda was furious because they ruined the game, but everyone thought it was kind of a fair end to it. Glad because they could finally have a little of actual fun then, most of the people abused the open bar and started to leave. Jaime and Lauren followed Meredith, who was sitting down on the handwash, smoking off a cigar.

"What the hell happened?" Jaime asked, approaching her.

"One time, twenty-five years ago," Meredith explained, with an expression that warned something, as the smoke slowly sneaked out from her mouth. "Brian Holden was born. Then, my life was ruined."

"What did he say to you?" She asked. Lauren and Jaime used that opportunity to fix their clothes in front of the mirror.

Meredith didn't answer. Instead, she wrinkled her noise. "Do you guys smell that…?"

"Yes." Jaime replied instantly, as if she was waiting someone made that question. "It is _that_ smell."

"Oh my god, maybe someone can help me to get through this night." Meredith felt a relief, as she jumped to get off the handwash.

She crouched in those tall high heels in a way that couldn't be labeled exactly as classy, and she started to tour the bathroom, spying under the doors of the cubicles. She found no one until the last one, and she couldn't help but smile, throwing her cigar on the floor and stepping on it.

"Yes." She whispered. It was Arielle, she recognized her shoes. She knocked on the door of the bathroom a few times.

"Meredith!" Jaime said, scandalized by her friend's behavior, but she followed her to that bathroom, Lauren behind her.

"It's fine, she's our friend now, right?" Meredith replied, shrugging.

Arielle opened the door, and Meredith was quick to talk first. "Arielle, darling, listen to me. I am sure you're going to be a total sweetheart and you're gonna save my life tonight." Her tone of voice was grievous.

"And you look so totally pretty tonight!" Lauren added, with a crying smile and an excited voice. "And you have weed!"

Arielle rolled her eyes. "Fine, but don't tell the others." She finally replied, and passed her cigarette to Meredith, but Jaime's hand (who was more upset now) stopped it.

"Hey, wait. You two, talk, now." She ordered. "Please wait a second, Arielle honey."

Arielle bit her lip in frustration as Jaime grabbed the arms of her two friends and quickly dragged them to the other side of the bathroom again.

"Listen." She warned, and her protective tone of voice could scare anyone. "Before you two are planning to smoke weed, I need to say that I am not going to babysit _anyone_ tonight, okay?"

"Jaims…" Lauren cried.

"No, you two know what I mean. If you get high you'll end up with the most hairy disgusting men in the hotel." Jaime accused Meredith with her index finger. "And you…" She pointed then at Lauren. "You know what you do."

"Yes, but that's not going to happen tonight, Jaime!" Meredith excused.

"Yes, and look at me!" Lauren cried, and put the best widest smile on all earth. "I am happy!" She exclaimed.

"You are always happy at first." Jaime warned, not convinced at all.

"Just a little bit, Jaims. It's just weed. We're not going to take anything else. Okay? Please?" Meredith put her puppy eyes, and Jaime rolled her eyes.

"I swear if one of you two…"

"We're not." Meredith stopped before she could foreshadow the worst for the night.

They walked back to Arielle as if that discussion had never happened. The girl raised her eyebrows.

"Everything in order?"

"Yes, totally, can you give us weed?" Lauren begged.

"Laur." Meredith said. "Let me take care of this."

Meredith gave a puff from the cigar Arielle handed her, then passed it to Lauren, but when Jaime's turn got on line she just shook her head.

"Jaims, please, you totally need to relax." Meredith asked sweetly.

"I'm fine." Jaime replied.

"You are so not! Julia has been stressing the shit out of you. It's going to be fine, I promise." Meredith sounded so worried that she convinced Jaime, and she gave it a shot. At first, she felt nothing but the weird taste. But after a few puffs, she could definitely say it was, as Meredith said, _really fine_.

They almost freaked out when they heard the door being opened and someone else walked in the bathroom, but it was just Denise and Devin. Denise ran to one of the toilets instantly, and Devin approached them and practically took the cigar from Jaime's hands, who was now pretty giggly and funny to notice.

"You know, I've never done this in high school." Jaime commented, and then gigged maniacally.

"Look at our girl, all grown up." Meredith laughed, thinking her reaction was kind of adorable. She was sure the newspaper wouldn't find it adorable if they found out what the writer of a bestseller was doing now though.

"Devin, you look amazing!" Arielle said, surprised. "How did you… How… I mean…" She stuttered awkwardly.

"I was kinda fat in high school, I know." Devin replied, laughing shyly.

"Kinda." Jaime replied sarcastically, still in her giggle attack. Well, pot made Jaime a little more honest, now they knew.

"But you look so good." Lauren added, checking her from head to toes. "You could be a stripper."

"Thanks, I guess." Devin replied, confused by that…compliment? Denise walked out from the bathroom in that moment and was washing her face. "Sweetie, are you okay?" Devin asked kindly.

"Yes, I'm good." Denise answered, and then walked to them. "That smell is kinda… Oh." She finally noticed.

"Do you want some?" Arielle asked, annoyed. Apparently her plan of keeping it in secret wasn't going to work.

"No, thanks. I'm kinda sick." Denise shook her head. Her face was a little pale. "Where did you…?"

"Brian Holden sold it to me." Arielle explained.

"Oh, I've heard that name enough times for today." Meredith complained, resting her back on one of the toilet's doors.

Devin snorted. "You mean he's still in the same circle?"

"Yeah, apparently. He still has the same job, but it's like, serious. Like really serious. He is one of the most important dealers in the state. Like, The Godfather, I don't know."

"_That_ is like the coolest fucking job I can think of." Lauren's mouth widened in amazement, correcting her previous words.

"Lauren." Meredith warned.

"He's so lame." Lauren retracted her thoughts instantly. "Ugh. What a loser."

"At least we know where to go if we need it." Meredith said, defeated, contrary to what she wished to actually do.

Jaime shook her head, in a moment of clarity. "What time is it?"

"Almost midnight."

"Fuck. Great." Jaime announced, giving the cigar back to Arielle. "We have a bachelorette party to attend, girls."


	4. Not so clear

**A/N: I know I was supposed to be here earlier! I'm sorry. But it's midday and I haven't got any sleep so here it is! The story really gets more ridiculous and stupid as I keep writing, sorry. I tried.**

**Warning: The usual as before!**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Not so clear**

_August 4rd, 2012– Los Angeles, California– 12.00am_

It was a God's miracle that Jaime had a clear moment while they were heading to the Bachelorette party in Julia's suite. A clear moment was a definition they created themselves. It was quite ironic that Lauren asked what that meant when Jaime clarified she was having one; but Lauren always used to ask things more than once, so she didn't mind.

"It's a moment of sanity, you know." Jaime explained. They took the stairs because the rest of the girls took the elevator, and they'd have to wait too long. They didn't realize it'd be so much more of a difficult task with their high heels. "Counting the amount of drinks we had at the dinner and that stupid pot you guys made me had, we shouldn't be thinking clearly until like one hour and a half or something. But I am totally sane right now. I could fucking shot an apple in your head right now, I'm totally centered."

The problem with having a clear moment was that you realized how stupid and ridiculous half-wasted people looked. They were at the door of the room, hearing the loud chatting and laughs that informing the rest of the girls was already inside. Jaime, for example, in that moment noticed that Meredith thought she was dealing with her high heels pretty well, but in the real word the needles of her shoes were trembling and she seemed half zombie half baby giraffe learning to walk. Lauren could go unnoticed having in mind that the effect was chilling her instead of making her crazier, _as long_ as she didn't talk to anyone and _as long_ as she didn't get up from a seat.

"You two have to promise to try to remain the quietest, calmest you can. And most important, _very_ away from Julia." Jaime warned seriously, looking at her two friends in the eyes. If Julia realized the state they were in, she'd come with the conclusion that they were trying to ruin her night, and as Jaime was in charge of it that would be obviously her fault.

Lauren and Meredith nodded instantly, but that worried her even more for some reason. But she just sighed, hoping those boring cousins of Julia would make the party end in half an hour to assure the bride would be well rested.

"How is the most beautiful bride of the world feeling tonight?" Jaime asked sweetly and loudly once she opened the door, with a big smile on her face. She stepped onto the couch Julia was sitting down with her cousins with her open arms until she reached her and gave her a big hug. Then she dragged a chair to sit close to her friend. Luckily, Lauren and Meredith sat down away from them. Denise, Arielle, Devin, Elona, Britney, and a bunch more of the girls were there. Apparently, they were previously talking about Devin's strict diet and fitness exercises to lose that impressive amount of weight. A part of Jaime's head thought she should take note of every word, and the other part was thinking if it was inappropriate to wish she'd get pregnant in the next few months. She decided to fake a smile and mentally put her in mute for the rest of the conversation. Meanwhile she served enough water in her glass to make sure the clear moment would last until she was completely sober or, at least, long enough to be safe during the party.

The wine glasses flew from hand to hand, everyone behaved so far but things were going way too calmed. When the chatting started to get quieter, Jaime checked the time on her phone. Then she quickly typed a text to the stripper that was supposed to be there fifteen minutes ago. She had no idea who that was, but it was the only one she could find on the newspaper and that could get a date for that very same night and asked a reasonable amount of money. She guessed all strippers were pretty much the same, fit as the steroids could produce them, with too many hair gel and gays as the fourth of July.

So she just smirked to herself when the gang heard a knock on the door, suddenly going silent.

"I wonder who could be." Julia said, confused, standing up, but half in the way she turned to Jaime, letting her jaw dropped in surprise. "Didn't you do what I think you did, right?"

"Maybe." Jaime replied, shrugging but with a guilty smirk that gave her away.

"Oh my God, Jaims!" Julia said, laughing and punching her friendly on the arm. Then she added quieter. "I'm glad you understood my signs."

Julia finally walked to the door, already blushing and holding giggles. The girls were at the expectative to witness the future scene; but when Julia opened the door she found a tiny chubby man wearing a police uniform. So the stripper was still on his way.

The poor girl, in shock, turned around and mouthed:

"Shit, it's a real cop."

Jaime stood up and walked to the door too. It was a real fucking police? Why'd he go to their room? Everyone in the room were frowning and looking at each other, kind of scared, except for Lauren that was playing Candy Crush on her phone while Meredith yelled various instructions in order to win the game.

"Which one of you is Julia Albain?" The police man asked.

He looked around 35-40 years old, he had a certainly unattractive beard that matched his dark brown hair, and an incipient tummy falling above an old wasted belt around his waist. He looked like Zach Galifianakis. But not even a shaved, just showered, polite Zach Galifianakis. He looked like Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover (The first one, obviously). In that scene when they just woke up and Zach Galifianakis was walking around without pants. That's exactly how he looked like.

Lucky that Julia answered then, because the similarity started to freak out Jaime and she thought her clear moment was about to slip from her hands.

"I am, excuse me, what's the problem?"

Her mind focused instantly after that. Police. Bachelorette. Pot. Wait, what? They did were smoking in the bathroom, but how could they find out? And why did they make such a big deal about it? It didn't make sense. Jaime finally took place in the talk.

"Officer, really, this is just a harmless party, my friend is getting married tomorrow, there's nothing-"

"I was talking to Miss Albain." The police man interrupted with an intimidating tone of voice.

Jaime's head made a tilt. "I don't understand…" Julia stuttered. She looked for a sign on her friend's face but she was more lost than her. The men walked three steps inside of the room.

"You might want to follow me, Miss Albain. My name's Officer Whacker."

Jaime's eyebrow lifted up. She suddenly wished she wasn't in a clear moment and she wasn't actually understanding what was happening. But it was pretty obvious she did.

"No." She said out loud. _No, no, no._ He wasn't going to say what she thought he was going to say. _No._

The stunted "officer" smirked confidently at Julia as he quickly walked outside, and appeared again with a stereo in hand.

"Officer Taly Whacker."

"Fuck." Jaime cursed, as he turned on the stereo and Florida's Get Low started to sound at a volume not loud enough to cover her voice.

So that was their stripper. A middle-aged chubby hairy man that looked kind (a lot) like Zach Galifianakis, playing a rap song from 2008 in a stereo that couldn't be a lot newer; as he danced ridiculously in an attempt to seduce a bunch of twentys in the middle of the room.

"Jaime?" Julia asked, sort of scared and freaked out.

The girl mouthed a pair of unsaid words before choosing the correct ones.

"Well, isn't he cheering up the party?" She made her biggest effort to smile, pointing at the indeed, cheerful stripper that was unbuttoning the buttons of his blue shirt.

He actually wasn't. She hoped someone would find it at least hilarious, but apparently everyone was sober enough to realize how pathetic that situation was. They weren't even gossiping lowly; the shock was so intense that everyone was speechless.

Jaime took Julia's hand and dragged her to the couch again, to her seat, and this time she sat next to her. The stripper took off his police hat and put it in Julia's head. Nobody could tell if she tried to smile, but the result was a creepy wince. Jaime handed her a glass of wine to make everything pass lighter and faster. They'd laugh about it a few hours later, they'd laugh. She had to hold onto that hope.

There wasn't a single face in the room that didn't look half grossed out half crept out. Well, there was one.

"Oh-my-god!" Lauren's voice sounded louder than how three of those stereos could sound. The girl ran from her gaunt spot to the couch (Why was she standing up? She couldn't stand up. Not now.), pushing Julia's cousin to sit next to Jaime. "Jaime, we thought he was the police, but look! He's a stripper!" She informed, completely surprised and excited.

"I can tell." Jaime replied. Maybe if she tried hard enough, she could dig a hole in that exact place of the sofa and it'd suck her all the way to China. She would do so much better in China.

"Julia, you have to give him money. Does somebody have like ten dollars bills or something?" Lauren asked to the group.

Half of the stares stabbed Lauren, but she was too busy cheering the stripper to realize. The man was so glad to have a fanatic that he didn't even seem to notice how uncomfortable the rest felt. He just kept dancing as a white girl and taking off his clothes and showing his nothairynotfattynotcompletelygross body.

"Well, if we are already here and this is happening…" Arielle said, defeated, grabbing three bills from her purse and handing them to Julia. "But _you_ are gonna do it."

She shook her head, rejecting the money. "I'm fine, thanks."

"Julia!" Meredith shouted from her remote chair. "You're going to force one of us to steal your night otherwise!"

"I think that already happened." Julia whispered. The stripper was now struggling to take his pants off without taking off his shoes.

"I'm sorry about that." Jaime said really lowly, so only the bride would hear. "Devin should have shut the fuck up after thirty seconds."

Julia snorted. The stripper was finally in underwear, not for the pleasure of the girl gang of course. "I meant you."

Jaime had to shake her head to be sure she heard those words well.

"Excuse me?"

Julia pretended to be admiring the tremendous body of the stripper, but the words came out condescendingly.

"Your intentions tonight had been pretty obvious."

"What are you talking about?"

As everyone else observed how Lauren and Meredith were slipping the dollars under the stripper's speedo, nobody was hearing their conversation. Julia took off the police hat from her head.

"Well, you went to the dinner alone knowing everyone would talk about that. Then you made Meredith played the garter game with Brian when you know that can only end up in a disaster. Then you show up late to my party, and…" She looked to that hairy man wiggling in front of her face, looking about to throw up. It seemed like if she had been holding those words for a long time, trying to convert them into something good, but that encounter pulled the trigger for just a painful bullet, or a kick in the groin, or its female equal bikini waxing. "Now this? Seriously?"

But Jaime didn't get sad for her words. She got really, really angry instead. Even if that was on purpose, what was her right to reclaim things in the position she was? She was helping her to do her wedding with her ex-fucking-boyfriend. And she was the one stating the codes? No way.

"Why'd I want to ruin your precious night? To shit all over the hard work I spent doing myself?"

Lucky that Lauren asked to the stripper to teach her his dance moves, because if that wasn't happening, that chat would be something everyone would be recording with their phones.

Julia had an enormous vein pulsing in her forehead that seemed about to become alive by itself. "Maybe because you're jealous of me 'cause you thought once you'd be the one to marry Joe." She finally spat. It was good to know what was the game she was playing, Jaime though.

Besides, that was just a _slightly tiny little bit_ true. "I don't want your stupid boyfriend. I've had it. Precocious, boring and obsessed with cars. Don't want it." She snapped with sassiness, but Julia's comeback was a knife stabbed on her back.

"But you _had_ it."

There was a moment of silence between the two girls.

"Yeah, whatever. I could have it whenever I want, I just don't want it. Have fun with it."

She knew one second after she said that that was crossing the line. More than just crossing the line. Fucking the line. Getting the line drunk in a college party and taking it upstairs. Without even cuddling the line after.

"Fuck you, Jaime!" Julia shouted, standing up and walking to the dorm, passing by the stripper and Lauren doing what he called his own mark step, the Taly Whacker, which consisted basically in pretending you were rubbing a towel through different parts of your body. They remained still while they were cleaning their armpits with their imaginary towels and Julia's voice directed everyone's attention to her and Jaime.

Jaime knew she should stood up, walk to the door and knock until Julia left her in. She knew she should've, but those words were still painful so she just remained there, sitting down, drinking from her glass of water, as everyone's eyes shot her, including the stripper's.

"Julia!" Finally, one of her cousins made what Jaime couldn't and started to beg her to open the door.

"I want everyone to leave." She responded, dramatically. "I want to be alone."

"You heard the fucking lady." Jaime whispered ironically, standing up and walking towards the door.

The rest didn't make Julia ask twice. In fact, it was almost as if the bachelorette and/or the fight had never happened. Arielle, Denise, Devin and Lily were all talking about going to a club that was pretty known in LA. Britney was calling her boyfriend, and everyone soon matched up with someone else to do something. The only people that were still in the room were Lauren, who was posing next to the stripper, and Meredith who was taking a picture of them.

"He's not Zach Galifianakis." Jaime yelled from the hall.

"He's _not_?" Meredith said, disappointed. Then she walked to the hall too, dragging Lauren by her arm.

"Who is Zach Galafinis?" Lauren asked, confused. The stripper, disappointed by the interruption of his performance, got dressed again.

"The douche stepdad from Youth in Revolt." Meredith explained.

"Oh, I love that movie. We could go to the cinema tonight."

Jaime rested her back on the wall of the hall, breathing deeply and ignoring them.

"No, we need to get_ something_ more. My brain is gonna start to realize that what just happened was real and then we'll be in Jersey Shore or something." "Meredith." Jaime warned, with her eyes closed.

"Just something that'll make us stand this night, okay?"

Their chat got interrupted when the stripper walked out of the suite, wearing his police uniform again, obviously kicked out by Julia's cousins who just closed the principal door too.

"You won't expect me to pay you, do you?" Jaime growled.

"I did my job!" He defended himself. "It's not my fault your friend can't appreciate a real man's beauty."

"Obviously." Jaime responded. She looked in her purse. "Look, 50$ it's all I have, take it or leave it." The guy squinted, not very satisfied, but he finally grabbed the money. "You know, you should use that money to buy a chicken and start your egg business, man. Do something else. Not this."

"Or you could be Zach Galifianakis' extra in his movies." Meredith suggested.

Taly looked offended. He gave them a pretentious answer. "I love my job. I don't need to be miserable as you are."

Well, that was a fair amount of insults for that day.

"You don't know me."

"I know everything I need to know." He pointed at Meredith, "Whore," then at Lauren, "dumb as a chewing gum," and finally at Jaime "and frigid bitch."

Were they really getting degraded by a 40 year old stripper?

"I can't believe we took selfies with you." Meredith spat, disgusted. "You are so not cool. You're not cool at all. You're the uncoolest thing I've ever seen. Get out of here."

Taly made a soldier salute before walking away with his fifty dollars gained from that night. There was a moment of silence, Jaime had her eyes closed again.

"Are you okay?" Meredith asked. She didn't dare to ask about what happened between Julia and her, but she could guess what it was about. But she couldn't get an answer because the spot occupied by the stripper was quickly replaced with another pretentious tone of voice.

"What's up, ladies?"

It was, of course, Brian Holden.

"Not now, Brian." Meredith warned. That was enough for a while.

"Is everything okay?" He said, but he got no reply either. "I just wanted to inform you that the guys and I are going to this Club called The Cupid and that we could appreciate some girl company later."

That was a pretty sneaky invitation. "No, but thanks." Meredith said.

"What about…?" Brian tried looking at Lauren and Jaime, but Lauren was still sad for the loss of their stripper friend and Jaime was pretending she didn't exist.

"No, but thanks." Meredith said again, despite he wasn't talking to her.

"I'm sensing some bad vibes from you." Brian muttered sarcastically, walking two steps and stopping right in front of her. But she didn't let intimidate.

"They're probably my lesbian vibes."

"Probably." He repeated, without moving. He was so close to her she could feel his breath. And his stare was checking her from head to toes. But Meredith didn't back up. Instead, she placed her hands on his shoulders, slipping it slowly through his shirt, one going down his back and the other on his chest, until they reached his waist.

"Um, no, not enough of a girl for me." She finally chuckled, pretending to be disappointed. "Your boobs aren't that bad though."

Brian laughed, taking most of her flirty tone than from the actual mean intention. "You'll be at the club tonight." He said, as if he was giving her an order.

"Nope."

"You will."

"I prefer to die."

"See you there." He finished before walking away with slow steps, as if he just actually put on action a pickup line.

"Don't let him go!" Lauren cried. "He can sell us something, did you forget about that?"

Meredith looked at her with a smirk. "That's not necessary."

Then she raised her hand at the height of her face, showing off the keys she just stole from Brian's pocket on the back of his jeans.

_12.50am_

"If we get in jail for this, I call dibs on the top bunk." Jaime said, while Meredith opened the door of Brian's room.

"We're gonna take the most powerless, tiniest thing we find, I promise." Meredith calmed, as they entered inside.

"Why does he have a room for himself? I thought the best man shared rooms." Lauren commented, suspicious, as Meredith opened the drawers of the bedside table looking for something, and Jaime opened the window to get some fresh air and sat on the bed denying to cooperate. "What if he's a weirdo?"

"Then stay away from the closet, that's where you hide the bodies." Meredith warned. "There's nothing in here!"

"Maybe they're in his suitcase."

Meredith walked to the corner of the room, where the two suitcases he carried were placed. She sat down on the floor.

"Why does he have two? It's just two days."

"Weeeirdoooo." Lauren chanted.

Meredith opened the first suitcase and checked it upside down. Clothes, hairbrush, regular cigarettes, more clothes. Nothing they could be interested in. Then she opened the second one.

"Woah." She gasped.

"Is that…?" Lauren was just as shocked as her. None of them moved or said anything, which awoke Jaime's curiosity so she walked there to see what was the big deal.

"No way."

There was another moment of silence. Finally, Meredith talked again.

"He's either a smuggler of sugar, or this is kinda…"

"A lot?"

The suitcase was entirely full of packages of different sizes. That was definitely more of a big deal of what they thought they could handle. Just that image left them in shock for a while.

"We should go." Meredith said, starting to regret her idea.

"Yes." Jaime finally agreed with her. "Close the suitcase again."

She started to zip up the suitcase again, but as soon as she tried the zip got stuck. She bent over, close to the zip to make a bigger effort, cursing as it didn't move. After a few seconds she gave up.

"I can't." She said, but as soon as she tried to sit up straight on the floor again, her head hurt. It took her a moment to realize it was her hair. It got stuck with the zip and she had to remain bending over, literally next to the suitcase.

"Oh, no." Jaime said. "Don't move." She sat on the floor to and tried to untie the mess of hair.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch."

"Well, it's a fucking nest in here and I can't see." Jaime said. Lauren tried to lighten the place with her phone screen but it didn't work. Meredith started to freak out. "You need to move."

"What? Do you realize I can't do that, right?" She yelled, from her place practically lying on the floor.

"Well, I can't see anything here. Lauren, do you have scissors?"

"Why'd I have scissors?"

"I don't know!"

"You're not gonna cut my hair anyway."

"It's not a choice."

"It's a bunch of hair! It will look awful. You can't cut it."

"Lauren, look inside the other suitcase if there's scissors."

"Ha, ha. No."

Meredith tried to see if the hair would unravel itself if she pulled hard enough, but it seemed worse. Okay, now she did was freaking out. That hurt and she couldn't move.

"Found the scissors!"

"Lauren, leave the scissors."

"Give me the scissors, Lauren."

"If you cut my hair I will end up looking like Buttercup from the Powerpuff Girls and somebody's gonna die. I fucking swear to God."

It was really a lot of hair stuck. Meredith heard the sound of metal, and she freaked out in the next level. She grabbed the huge suitcase with her arms as her weird position allowed her, and started to drag it through the floor, away from Jaime's hands.

"Don't be such a baby! Come here!"

Jaime followed her, but Meredith continued getting away.

"Try to catch me now, Edward ScissorHands!" Meredith messed with her, she felt a little more of hope now.

"I'm going to cut your face as Edward ScissorHands did to that guy that he cut his face!" She rambled, stumbling with her words and following her through the room with the scissors in hand. "Lauren, help me!"

Lauren observed the situation. But instead of immobilizing Meredith, for some reason she thought it was a better idea to grab the suitcase and lifting it up to her shoulders height.

"LAUREN WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?" Meredith screamed, half in pain half in fear.

"I DON'T KNOW, JAIME WAS SCREAMING!" Lauren screamed as well, regretting her action seeing how much that hurt to Meredith, who had to stand up quickly to not get suddenly bald. But when she was about to drop the suitcase, she stopped her.

"DON'T FUCKING LET GO, YOU'RE GOING TO RIP OFF MY HEAD."

"Stop yelling you two, Meredith don't move." Jaime stood up with her scissors too.

"JAIME GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME."

Meredith ran to the other side of the room, near the door. Lauren followed her, having no choice, she was the one holding the suitcase in its place.

"What are you going to do? Walk around with a suitcase full of drugs hanging from your head?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I am going to do, and you can't stop me!"

"I really don't feel comfortable in this position." Lauren muttered.

"LAUREN, DON'T FUCKING MOVE. YOU MOVE, I GET BALD."

"COULD YOU STOP YELLING AT ME?" Lauren finally shouted back. Then she made a sudden step to the right, pulling of Meredith's hair.

"YOU LITTLE WHORE!" She could barely feel her scalp at that point.

"SAY IT AGAIN." Lauren made another step to the right.

"AGHHH."

Another step.

"WHEN I CAN FEEL MY HEAD AGAIN I SWEAR I'M GONNA KILL YOU AND OH MY GOD JAIME GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME."

The scissors were dangerously near so she ran to the other side of the room again. This time, Lauren resisted to follow her at first and Meredith could swear her head wasn't a part of her anymore. She stopped next to the window, in a corner. She was about to cry from how much her head hurt but she still didn't want to cut half of her hair off.

"I'M GONNA FUCKING DO THIS ANYWAY AND YOU KNOW IT." Jaime warned, terrifyingly close.

"DON'T YOU DARE."

She slowly approached her. She seemed Jack Nicholson in the last part of The Shining with scissors instead of a hammer. If someone walked in the room in that moment they'd have a lot of explanation to give.

"OH MY GOD, JAIME, GO AWAY."

"JAIME DO IT, I CAN'T FEEL MY ARMS!" Lauren cried.

"YOU ARE SURPRISINGLY STRONG, HOW CAN YOU EVEN HOLD THIS SHIT? JAIME, I'LL PUNCH YOU IF YOU GET CLOSER."

"THIS IS YOUR FAULT, IF YOU FUCKING BRUSHED YOUR HAIR THIS WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED!"

"MY BICEP IS GOING TO GET A CRAMP!"

"I FUCKING BRUSHED MY HAIR, SLUT!"

Jaime pointed at her accusingly with the scissors.

"YOU DIDN'T BECAUSE I STOLE YOUR HAIRBRUSH FROM YOUR STUFF BECAUSE I FORGOT MINE!"

"GIRLS, MY ARM!"

"YOU DIDN'T FORGET YOURS BECAUSE _I_ STOLE IT, SURPRISE BITCH!"

In that second: three things happened at the same time. First, Jaime made a sudden movement with her hand to cut Meredith's hair off and let her free. But Meredith also moved to the side with all the strength she could gather. Last but not least, Lauren dropped the suitcase and cried as her bicep got a cramp. The combination of these three movements were pretty damn bad. The suitcase, now that Lauren wasn't grabbing it, slipped from her shoulder, and thanks to Meredith's super-extra-jumbo hairflip that finally let her free, and Jaime's arm punch, the suitcase slipped through the open window behind them, outside, falling.

Three seconds later, a splash.

The suitcase landed, yes. In the pool from the hotel's garden.

Every fly stopped buzzing in that moment, which lasted an eternity. The heart of the three girls stopped. Jaime covered her face with her hands, Meredith closed her eyes not knowing if she should be glad to have most of her hair or to jump through the window as well, and Lauren was in shock staring at the window as if she couldn't believe what happened.

How many money was worth inside that suitcase? How would they explain that to Brian? What would happen to Brian? What would happen to them? Were they going to get killed by an Asian drug dealer in the middle of the road? Maybe it wasn't Asian, it could be Mexican. If they had bad luck, it would be Russian. But they were probably going to get killed by someone.

There were many wonders but there was just one thing left to say. And Meredith was the first one to let it out.

"Fuck."

* * *

**A/N: I'm sorry so many caps! how madness many crazy such vulgar wow. HOWEVER I hope you liked it and if it was like that (or not) I'll be waiting for a review to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading! xo**


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